ACKNOWLEDGING THE FLEXIBILITIES OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT: ENSURING THE RIGHT TO ACCESS TO MEDICINES OR A STRATEGY OF PASSIVE REVOLUTION?

The Doha Ministerial Declaration on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and Public Health adopted in November 2001 clarified the right to use the TRIPS flexibilities to promote public health. Examining the hegemonic struggle of opposing social forces from a neo-Gramscian perspective, the paper attributes this outcome to the strategy of trasformismo used by market-oriented social forces to legitimize the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and prevent resistance against the market-driven TRIPS Agreement. It argues that although non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, Third World Network, and Oxfam worked as a counter-hegemonic force to ensure the access of least developed countries to generic versions of patented drugs, flexibilities confirmed by the Doha Declaration can be seen more as a strategy of trasformismo to absorb counter-hegemonic ideas than the counter-hegemonic groups’ successful incorporation of the right to ensure public health into the TRIPS Agreement.

TİCARETLE BAĞLANTILI FİKRİ MÜLKİYET ANLAŞMASI ESNEKLİKLERİNİN TEYİT EDİLMESİ: İLAÇLARA ERİŞİM HAKKININ GARANTİ ALTINA ALINMASI MI, PASİF DEVRİM STARTEJİSİ Mİ?

Kasım 2001 yılında kabul edilen Ticaretle Bağlantılı Fikri Mülkiyet Anlaşması (TRIPS) ve Halk Sağlığı Konusundaki Doha Deklarasyonu, TRIPS esnekliklerinin kamu sağlığının garanti altına alınması amacıyla kullanılması hakkını teyit etmiştir. Karşıt sosyal gruplar arasındaki hegemonya mücadelesini Neo-Gramşiyan perspektiften inceleyen bu çalışma, söz konusu değişikliği, piyasa odaklı toplumsal güçlerin Dünya Ticaret Örgütü (DTÖ) politikalarını meşrulaştırmak ve TRIPS Anlaşması’na karşı direnişi önlemek amacıyla kullandığı trasformismo stratejisi ile açıklamaktadır. Sınır Tanımayan Doktorlar, Üçüncü Dünya Ağı ve Oxfam gibi sivil toplum kuruluşları (STK), az gelişmiş ülkelerin jenerik ilaçlara yasal erişimlerini kolaylaştırmak için hegemonya karşıtı bir mücadele sürdürmüştür. Ancak, çalışma, Doha Deklarasyonu ile getirilen esnekliklerin, hegemonya karşıtı grupların ilaçlara erişim hakkını TRIPS Anlaşmasına dahil ettirmesinden çok, piyasa odaklı sosyal güçlerin hegemonya karşıtı fikirleri absorbe etmek için kullandıkları bir trasformismo stratejisinin bir sonucu olduğunu ileri sürmüştür.

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